“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
The burial of Jesus was the proof of the reality of His death. The burial of our “old man” is evidenced by our baptism into Christ. In the early church this moment of baptism was a solemn declaration accompanied by the confession, “Jesus is Lord.” It was a decisive moment since it often signaled the onslaught of persecution.
Why did these early believers undergo baptism with such joy? They understood that identification with His death also meant identification with His life to the glory of the Father. Our identity with His death is our own death to sin. But death to sin is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning. God’s desire is that we walk in newness of life. This is not some ethereal goal it is a certainty based on the truth of God’s resurrection of His Son.
You were saved to walk in newness of life. Newness of life is a calling for the believer. It means that His mission and cause have become ours. It means that His Spirit now indwells us to give life to our physical bodies. It means that we can present the members of our body to Him as instruments of righteousness (6:13). Are you walking today in the newness of life?
Prayer: Father, may I walk every day in the joy of resurrection life. Amen